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Welcome to the Business Outlook. I'm Ron Krug.

And I'm Salve Duplito.

The Headline.

U.S. futures and European markets rise after Tuesday's broad sell-off.

The Philippine Central Bank chief allays fears over the peso slide as the local currency falls to a 17-month low against the U.S. dollar.

And we speak with Zoom Asia-Pacific head Ricky Kapoor as the videoconference app seeks to further revolutionize the workplace with AI technology.

Let's check on European markets first.

They are up in afternoon trade with the French CAC 40 leading the rally.

Sentiment is getting a boost from Eurozone data showing inflation slowed across the board last month,

reinforcing expectations for a European Central Bank interest rate cut in June.

As for Wall Street, futures are inching higher as most mega-cap growth stocks advance in pre-market trading.

Investors will be keeping an eye out for more Fed speak with two officials set to speak today, a day after Fed Chief Jerome Powell.

Here are some stocks to watch out for.

We're monitoring shares of ASML as the largest supplier of equipment to chipmakers missed sales forecasts.

ASML shares tumbled 3%.

Also in focus, shares of ASML.

ASML shares tumbled 3%.

ASML shares tumbled 3%.

Shares of Adidas after it reported better than expected quarterly results and raised its 2024 guidance.

Shares of the German sportswear giant last traded higher by 8%.

We're also keeping a close watch on shares of luxury giant LVMH

after its first quarter sales figures matched analyst expectations.

Its stock price rose 5% in midday trading.

Inuan Asian Markets ended Wednesday trade on a mixed note

as investors assessed Fed Chief Jerome Powell's hawkish statement overnight.

Japan's CK225 slumped 1.3%, falling below the 38,000 level for the first time since February.

The Shanghai Composite, on the other hand, jumped 2% after China's securities regulator clarified concerns over delisting rules.

Here at home, Philippine shares finally snapped a nine-day losing streak on bargain hunting.

The main index now back above 64,000.

For the PSYI, our analysis suggests that the next support level lies around 64 to 62.

And its resistance level is marginally just above 65.

And then should it be broken, the next resistance level sits around 67.

Of course, this assessment is grounded in the index potential to enter the oversold territory,

which historically corresponds with a rebound.

It is expected to be around 64 or more.

As for the Philippine peso, it weakened against the dollar for a fifth day.

The local currency closed 57.18 to the greenback Wednesday.

That's a 17-month low.

The Philippine Central Bank attributes the peso's depreciation to geopolitical tensions in the Middle East

and the possible delay in interest rate cuts from the U.S. Federal Reserve.

BSP Chief Eli Remolona adds,

the peso's weakening is not sharp enough.

to warrant a change in monetary policy.

He also does not see it affecting domestic inflation expectations,

but he says the Monetary Board may reconsider cutting interest rates this year.

The central scenario would be fourth quarter ease.

If things are worse,

then we think that it might be postponed to the first quarter of 2025.

For now, I think the impact on monetary policy is, I would say, not large.

It might be a factor depending on what happens between now and the next monetary policy meeting.

It's not a case of a weak peso, it's a case of a strong dollar.

It's not just the Philippine peso experiencing weakness.

Most Asian currencies have slumped against the strong dollar

on rising bets of higher for longer rates.

Financial authorities from Japan, South Korea, and Malaysia have said

they stand ready to intervene to control their currency's volatility.

The International Monetary Fund raises its economic outlook for the Philippines.

The IMF revised its Philippine growth forecast to 6.2%.

That's well within the Philippine government's target range of 6 to 7%.

The IMF cited carryover from a better-than-expected outturn in the tail end of 2023.

The IMF also upwardly revised its 2025 forecast for the country to 6.2%

as it anticipates domestic demand and investments to accelerate.

As for global growth, the IMF placed it at 3.2% this year.

That's slightly better than its previous growth.

The IMF's forecast as it sees the U.S. pushing world output through headwinds

from high inflation, weak demand in China and Europe, as well as geopolitical tensions.

But it warns a wider conflict between Israel and Iran could hurt growth.

We looked at a scenario where we would have more geopolitical tensions

that would result in elevated oil prices, energy prices, and shipping costs.

And what we find is that this would lead to higher price pressures in the global economy.

There would be higher inflation.

There would be lower output.

And roughly, the estimates we have for a sustained increase in oil prices by about 15%

would be an increase in inflation globally of about 0.7%.

Boosting growth and catching up with global competition.

Those are some of the topics.

We're expected to dominate the special summit between European Union leaders.

During the two-day meeting, which will begin Wednesday,

leaders will discuss how to make the bloc's economy more competitive

to avoid being left behind by the U.S. and China.

I think that says European markets are pretty fractured

and mostly along country lines, reducing the potential for increased growth.

To make progress in these areas, you really need member states prepared to make compromises,

including to give up.

Some of their own national sovereignty over these particular areas.

And that means not insisting on having your own kind of telecoms national champion

and being prepared to change your listing rules

so that they're more aligned with other countries.

And this is an area where politicians, you know, they like to talk the talk.

But in the end, we haven't seen a lot of walking the walk.

And we're taking a quick break.

Up next, Zoom Asia Pacific head, Ricky Coppola.

Poor joins us to talk about its latest offering to further boost workplace productivity.

Thank you.

Welcome back.

Video conference app Zoom became a household name during the COVID-19 lockdown.

It was one of the fastest growing apps of the pandemic

with over 485 million downloads in 2020.

Now, Zoom is seeking to further boost productivity

and revolutionize teamwork with its AI-powered collaboration platform.

Ricky Coppola, the Asia Pacific head of Zoom,

joins us where else?

By Zoom.

So, to tell us more about the Zoom workplace.

Hi, Ricky.

Hi, Salve.

Hi, Ron.

Thanks for having me on Business Outlook.

Hi, Ricky.

Glad to have you here on the show.

I want to get a big picture first.

Of course, we're talking about the use of Zoom and video conferencing apps,

which was big during the COVID pandemic.

But how is it now after restrictions have been lifted,

more people have been reporting back to their offices?

How's remote work?

How's video conferencing?

How's video conferencing apps use looking now in companies,

most especially in the Asia Pacific?

Yeah, thanks for that, Ron.

Look, you know, the world is very different now.

And without a doubt, the world has become very hybrid

in terms of the business setting.

If you look at any of the research,

there was one done fairly recently by online job seeking platform, SEEK.

And they reported that 46% plus of Filipinos want hybrid work.

And, you know, it's no secret that in most parts of Southeast Asia

and the metro cities, including Manila,

you know, traffic is a friction from getting from home to work.

So a lot of employers are realizing that work needs to be hybrid.

You want your employees to be productive.

And that's possibly going to be where they come into the office

a certain number of days, but work from home a certain number of days.

And that creates an opportunity for productivity.

But frankly, it also creates a...

a somewhat disconnectedness, a disengagement,

possibly a tearing of culture,

a feeling of perhaps a lack of belonging that employees can have.

And that's where we're focusing on.

That's what we're trying to solve for in the Zoom workplace platform.

We're really helping companies navigate the hybrid world

with very rich, innovative, collaborative tools and platforms

laced with AI, but also with products and tools that allow you...

companies and senior executives to create that sense of belonging,

that sense of culture amongst employees to want them to come back to the office.

Which is why we introduced Zoom Workplace, which is far more than video right now.

So, you know, we were a very loved video platform and we're still a very loved video platform.

But today, Zoom has morphed into a much bigger communications platform that includes email,

calendar,

team chat,

the ability to call each other on phone, video.

We've also announced Zoom Docs, which is really an AI-powered workspace

to allow employees to collaborate with each other.

So, you know, what we've seen from our own customer feedback is

they wanted to use that same ease of use and innovative feel of Zoom

beyond video in communicating with each other on chat, on...

email, on phone calls.

So, that's what Zoom Workplace is today and an end-to-end communications platform.

That's one area we've focused on.

And the other one we focused on is on customer experience,

where we've come up with a rich set of products to help companies

really reimagine how to engage customers in today's hybrid world.

Let's talk more about the new things,

the bells and whistles that you're introducing later.

But I wanted to know, is this the same in the Asia-Pacific region

as with the rest of the world?

Or are there some things that you're seeing here in this region

that is not seen elsewhere?

Look, I think overall, it's the same mostly across the globe,

where work has become hybrid.

People are working only a few days from the office and a few days from...

from home.

That seems to be a trend across most parts of the globe.

And that real need and demand for innovative ways to communicate and collaborate

seems to be a global trend.

That said,

you know, what's different about this, you know, vibrant region that we call Asia-Pacific?

I mean, firstly, we have a very young, talented, educated workforce

who are used to using very innovative products,

products in their consumer and personal lives.

Second, as I said earlier, the friction of travel distances,

the friction of travel is a lot more.

So you spend...

you potentially spend a lot more time getting from home to office and back.

That's wasted time that could be spent being more productive.

I think these are a couple of things that are potentially increasing

the demand for very innovative, collaborative consumer,

friendly products in this region.

And that's kind of where Zoom is really well known for, right?

We're well known to provide very easy-to-use products that just work.

And that's what we're bringing to this region across a full platform beyond video.

Ricky, how about the challenges you're facing in the Asia-Pacific?

Maybe we can talk about regulations, infrastructure,

I believe is a big problem here in the Philippines.

How are those being mitigated?

How are those being mitigated?

How are those being mitigated?

Or how are those being met by your company?

So let's take them separately.

You know, in terms of infrastructure,

I assume you're talking about technical infrastructure.

If I take you back to the time when everyone was virtual,

Zoom just worked.

And that's because we have a very optimized platform for video.

So we, you know, Zoom just works,

whether it's in a Tier 1 city with, you know,

incredible broadband connectivity or a Tier 3 city with less,

you know, powerful connectivity, you know, Zoom just works.

And as, you know, when you're optimized for video,

it's very easy to bring that into, you know, chat and email and other forms of communication.

So, you know, we don't see that, frankly, as a challenge.

In terms of regulation, you know, we spend a lot of time working with,

on meeting the regulatory requirements of different countries,

different industries within countries, and we actually come up with very,

very interesting products that allow us to meet that.

You know, one of the examples is a product we call Zoom Node,

which is really our ability to bring Zoom inside the data center of a customer,

which allows them to use the latency of Zoom inside their data center.

So we really are looking at the requirements of this region

and working very hard to ensure that we meet those requirements,

but never lose that design philosophy of,

it's really innovative.

It's easy,

easy to use, and it's very cool.

It is very cool.

I was just wondering about,

I don't know, tier 1, tier 2, tier 3,

maybe there are cities in the Philippines

that don't even reach those tiers.

Here in the Philippines, I'm not sure if you know,

some of the schools

actually use some other platform

because of the data needed.

And I think that's another one of the

challenges in this region. But having

said that,

when it comes to this new

workplace, I think

I was so excited to see that

you could actually have

a virtual EA, executive

assistant, do all of the

things that you wanted.

Yes, I'd like that.

Somebody to make the agenda,

somebody to summarize everything,

take down notes,

and do all of those things.

That actually helps with helping people

connect with each other?

Yes, Alve,

you're absolutely right.

As you mentioned, we introduced a Zoom AI companion

as a very rich

AI tool that allows

each one of us to have a personal

digital assistant.

It could be something as easy and simple

as a meeting summary, where you may

have attended the meeting and you may

want to be reminded of what was discussed

rather than taking notes.

Or frankly, you may have actually missed

a meeting and

you don't want to have that FOMO of what happened,

did I get any tasks?

You get rich meeting summaries where

you can see what was discussed, who discussed

what, were you given

any tasks? That's one great

use of AI. But then it goes

way beyond that.

If you're chatting with your colleagues in the

workplace, sometimes you wake up

in the morning and you get

27 chat messages and this

summarizes it for you and tells you

what the gist of the conversation is.

That's quite valuable

or it will help you compose

the chat message in terms of response.

Those are things that are actually very

much time-saving.

But it goes beyond that into

meeting equity, meeting

equality. In many

cases, we have meetings where

multiple languages need to be spoken.

So we've built in some rich translation

capabilities in 36 plus

languages, including

Tagalog, including Chinese, so that

if you're having a meeting with

somebody else who's speaking a different language,

the interpretation is doing it

for you so you don't necessarily

lose that richness of the

conversation. So we're

doing a lot of things around

that and I'm really excited about

Zoom AI Companion.

One of the things that we are

doing differently with AI Companion

than many companies is we're actually

offering Zoom AI Companion

free with every

paid license of Zoom.

What that means is

we've taken the cost friction out

of it. So if you're a big company or even

a small company, you don't really

have to decide who gets AI,

who doesn't get AI,

who are the haves, who are the have-nots.

That's a tough decision that no one wants to make.

We've taken that decision out and made

it very easy for everyone to have

this power of

AI. You really save

time from all the mundane tasks.

Ricky, you mentioned

a while ago that you

listen to your customers.

I'm wondering what

recent things have they

aside from AI, of course, what recent

things have they been asking for?

What do they need and what do

they want

maybe in collaborative

products, not just for video conferencing?

One thing that

came loud and clear from our customers

was that this whole

area of customer experience

is

transformed. What their customers

were looking for was

a very

different experience than what

was there in the past. They wanted

to be able to connect across multiple

channels, including video,

they wanted to be able to switch from one

channel to another channel. Let's start

talking to someone, an agent on the

phone, I want to switch to a video call

to show them what I'm seeing.

But they also

wanted the ability to

they wanted a lot of empathy.

So there was a need

for AI to be brought into

this in such a way that the agent had

all the information across all the channels

about what were the different communications

happening with the customer. So

not only could you resolve things fast,

but then you could also

provide rich insights to that person.

And that was one area around

customer experience

that we got directly from our customers.

They wanted that ease of use

of Zoom

to help their agents and

customer experience. And that's why

we introduced Zoom Contact Center

as an omni-channel

platform that

really brings AI richly into it

to help the agents with

helping customers faster,

better, and helping the team leaders

make strategic decisions. And

that's an example of one product that we

built from the ground up. Really

with that ease of use and innovation

that Zoom is known for. And the

fact that these things just work.

But to reimagine how

our customers help

their customers

in consuming

their products. So it's one of the things

there's a number of features

that we are adding. We added about 700

features in less than

a couple of months in Zoom Contact Center

based on that feedback.

That actually speaks to us. We've used

Zoom during COVID, right? To air

our shows. And a multi

multi-window

stream would have

been nice during COVID.

But what's next after this?

I know you already have some plans.

There are other developments.

The developments in the AI world

are very fast.

Can you give us a sneak peek

into what's next after AI?

Absolutely, Salvia.

There's a few things I want to speak about.

I think I said this earlier.

That while this hybrid world

is very productive,

there's also a level of disconnectedness

from the company, sometimes from

people when they're working from home.

And we wanted to solve that problem.

Really helping companies and

senior executives really

create that sense of culture, that sense of

belonging for employees.

Which is why we acquired a company

called Work People.

Customers in the Philippines also.

And that's a platform we acquired

that really is around creating

employee experience.

Helping companies communicate,

broadcast their messages,

their strategies.

But in a very rich, immersive

world with a very

social fabric, video,

micro-size, which frankly

younger populations

love. Especially in the

Philippines where it's a very

social,

connected, young

population.

And they love the look and feel

of consumer products. And we are bringing that

same cool look and feel

so that companies can connect

with their employees on this platform

called Work People. That's one

we're investing on to create that

sense of belonging

within the organization.

The other area that we're

doing is a lot with AI. We're doing a lot

with AI so that we

constantly provide the ability,

for our

customers to

really save time on

tasks. Be it in the

contact center or in the workplace.

We are sharing a lot

of this. One such example is

something that we've announced called Zoom Docs,

which is a different concept

from what people think about in terms

of document management.

It's really an AI-powered

workspace that allows

many people to collaborate in

planning, activities, project,

tasks, bring in external content,

and really

collaborate in a way that has never been

thought of before. Looking forward

to sharing more about this with you.

Very exciting. Just one final

quick question from me. Stock price

of Zoom has not gone up

to the levels of 500

US dollars and up during COVID.

You expect this new AI

revolution within Zoom

to bring the stock price back up again?

No, sir.

Our focus is not really

on the stock price as such.

Our focus is in bringing innovation

to our customers in

areas that they are looking for.

Which is why we released a full

platform, as I said, around email

and calendar and

Zoom phone and

video, the employee engagement

piece, coming into the customer success

area. And we've seen some great

adoption. Zoom phone itself

has surpassed 7 million users.

And that's been an incredible

momentum. We have customers in Philippines

like JG Summit

and First Gen

that use Zoom phone. We have customers

like USSC,

the payment solutions company that use

Web Vivo. We have, so

many of our customers are now adopting

a newer product and that will create the

growth that we are looking for. Fantastic.

We'll have to leave it at that. Thank you so much, Ricky.

Thanks. Thank you for your time,

Salve. Thank you for your time, Ron.

That's your business outlook.

I'm Ron Crow. And I'm Salve Duplito.

The world tonight comes your way at the

top of the next hour. Keep it here

on ANC.